CHEMICAL INDUSTRY IN KWANGTUNG PROVINCE 135 



pan, water is added, and the condenser is put over the pan. 

 The diameter of the pan is about 4 feet, and the depth is 

 1-1^ feet. Here the condenser also acts as a cover of the 

 pan. 



Between the pan and the condenser are three rings, the 

 purpose of which is to keep the still air tight, but as a matter 

 of fact, alcohol and steam can escape and are wasted. 

 Beneath the pan is the furnace in which fuel is used. The 

 fermented rice is heated to a temperature of about 70 deg. C. 

 which is near the boiling point of alcohol, and then the con- 

 denser which is usually made of metal is placed over the pan. 



Inside of this condenser is a dome-shape wall which 

 divides the condenser into two parts. Cold water is poured 

 into the condenser so as to cool it, and beneath the dome 

 the vapors of alcohol are condensed, and run out through the 

 outlet into the jar. The water above the dome soon gets hot, 

 is then let out, and more cold water put in. Thus the con- 

 denser is not in a cool state all the time, so that the alcohol 

 does not distil over very rapidly. Thus much of the heat is 

 wasted. 



Some of the wine manufacturers use a clay condenser 

 instead of metal, and find that the wine is of a better grade, 

 but as a clay condenser is easily broken and clay is not so 

 good a conductor of heat, it is not so advantageous. 



It takes one hour to complete the distillation and in a 

 small store, like the one in Ng Chuen j$ ^ , only four jars 

 of wine are made in a day, each jar contains 25 catties and 

 costs $2.50 per jar. The wine-maker has to pay 40 cents to 

 the government as a tax per each jar of 25 catties, and for 

 better wines they have to pay more. 



The first distillate contains more alcohol, so that the last 

 portions which distill over contain almost pure water. The 

 residue is used for feeding pigs. The first distillate is 

 Liu Poon J® fc which has a specific gravity of .955, so that 

 it contains 25% of alcohol. When the Liu Poon is re- 

 distilled with more fermented rice put in, the Seung Jing 

 ^ ^ is obtained which is a stronger wine and contains 30% 

 alcohol. When the Seung Jing is distalled again with more 

 fermented rice for the third time, the Sam Jing H M 

 is obtained, which contains 45% alcohol. 



As Sherry and Port wines contain 15-20% of alcohol and 

 the strongest whisky contains 50% of alcohol, Chinese rice 

 wine contains more alcohol on the average than foreign 

 wines, but as the Chinese people do not drink rice wine in 

 large quantities at one time, they seldom get intoxicated. 



Vinegar. As rice wine is the product of alcoholic fer- 

 mentation so vinegar is the acetic fermentation of wine, 



